Division ofPublic Health

Division ofPublic Health

SADLER RESEARCH PROJECTS

This NIMHD-funded Transdisciplinary Collaborative Center aims to address health disparities in chronic diseases in Flint through community-engaged intervention research. I am
the Academic Director of the Methodology Core. More details are available on the project website.

Collaborators

This survey—completed using the Nutrition Environment Measurement Survey (NEMS)—provides a comprehensive spatial view of food access in the Flint community. This food access data is combined with clinical and other health data to create some of the first links between objectively measured, GIS-referenced food access and health outcomes.

Collaborators

Growing out of the efforts of many different actors in the local food system, much work in Flint is now devoted to smaller-scale projects that can bring healthy food back to communities. These have included the new Flint Fresh Mobile Market, MSU Extension’s Refresh MI Corner Store initiative, and the Chamber of Commerce’s efforts to support two new independent grocery stores in Flint. I continue to work with community partners on evaluation and planning for many of these efforts.

In partnership with MSU Extension, we are developing a platform to connect consumers with healthy, local food through direct, personalized messaging. We will capitalize on partnerships in Flint’s local food network to populate the platform with local food vendors and healthy eating messaging, and provide a virtual community for sharing information about local food.

Collaborators

Flint area partners have undertaken a vast amount of work to reduce blight and beautify neighborhoods. My work with various partners aims to understand the impact these programs have had on criminal activity, social ties, and self-reported mental health status.

Collaborators

My work with Hurley predates the water crisis, to when their pediatric clinic colocated with the Flint Farmers’ Market. Our foundational work examining children’s blood lead levels helped bring national attention to the community and led to the creation of the PPHI. Subsequent work has connected environmental determinants of these blood lead levels to aid in further public health response and evaluated the impact of the pediatric clinic’s colocation with the farmers’ market. New work includes the establishment of the Flint Lead Exposure Registry.

Collaborators

FACHEP is a team led by Wayne State researchers specializing in environmental engineering and public health. We are conducting an independent study to evaluate the possible association between changes in Flint’s water system and public health, specifically the recent Legionnaires’ disease outbreak.

Collaborator

Many of Flint’s challenges—including the chain of events that ultimately precipitated the Flint Water Crisis—can trace their roots to a history of discrimination in housing, massive white flight and suburbanization, and other elements of daily life. This research illustrates how public policy and decisions made by those in power set the stage for urban decline well before the economic changes that caused jobs to leave the city.

Collaborators

This pilot study is integrated into the CREATE for STEM ‘Health In Our Hands’ curriculum, and aims to introduce Flint schoolchildren to GPS technologies and urban planning concepts. Children work with GPS units to better understand their neighborhood and propose changes to make their built environments more health-promoting.